Bike Rental Program Peddles Smart Cards

In France, people use RFID-enabled prepaid cards to rent bicycles from 175 locations across Lyon and its suburbs. RFID Journal reports."Since 2000, residents in Lyon, France, have been able to use their Técély' RFID-enabled transit passes to pay bus, tramway and Metro fares. Now those same prepaid smart cards can be used to rent bikes from 175 locations across the city and its suburbs.The city's bike-rental program—which is called vélo'v — was launched in May, and the company behind its deployment says the bikes are already being well used. "It's a big success because 30,000 persons use it, and each bike is rented 10 to 12 times per day. The system isn't expected to be profitable. The aim is not to make money, but to promote the use of the bike in the city," says Agathe Albertini, communications director at outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, based in Paris.

Hello Kitty Cameraphone

mobileblog.it reports on a limited edition Hello Kitty cameraphone, made in Taiwan and sold in Hong Kong.According to ThreeGMobile.net, "Japanese cutie cartoon characters successfully conquer the heart of Asians. Thus it is not strange to see many special cartoon edition mobile phones in the markets. Such cartoon limited editions are mainly from Taiwan.With the help of local retailer, Hello Kitty and Chinnamoroll camera phoneshave finally arrived in Hong Kong. Like other special items, the price is quit expensive. The Hello Kitty model costs HK$3380 or around $422.- and Chinnamoroll costs HK$1780 or around $229.-."

FCC approves LG CU230 for Cingular

While still unannounced, the FCC recently put their stamp of approval on LG's CU230 slider phone. It looks to be headed to Cingular once their 3G network is up and running later this year.Feature wise the LG CU230 sports:GSM 850/1800/1900 plus UMTS and EDGE180 degree swiveling 1.3 megapixel cameramicroSD (formally TransFlash) card slotBluetoothNo solid word on when the CU320 will ship, but the 3G network is very close to launching.

[via phoneArena]

RAZR V3C Picture Phone

Expanding the world-wide success of the revolutionary RAZR, Motorola released the RAZR V3c on Verizon Wireless' CDMA network. Like the original, the RAZR V3c boasts a sleek and slim profile with a chemically-etched keypad, but comes in a new refined steel gray finish. Compared to the original RAZR released last year, the V3c is considerably better, upgrading to a 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 playing capabilities, EV-DO (Evolution for Data Optimized) high-speed access, and VCAST video service. Adding to it Bluetooth wireless technology, BREW downloadable games and applications, and MotoSpeak advanced voice recognition technology, the RAZR V3c is well-rounded in imaging, audio, and entertainment features and positioned to be one of the most popular devices on Verizon Wireless' line-up. -

Motorola RAZR V3c Review

A number of adventure-seekers are strapping RFID tags and PDAs onto their wrists in order to take part in a new interactive game. The goal: to escape from Mazzinia, a futuristic high-security jail.Named La Fuga (The Breakout), the game opened this month at a former bank not far from the Real Madrid Stadium in northern Madrid. The facility can host up to 300 players at a time, each of whom tries to solve quizzes and pass through different obstacles in order to escape."

Nokia N90 Shipping in US

The Nokia N90 is now shipping in the US, though not on a carrier which will limit its impact on the market. The N90 is a high-end camera phone that was announced earlier this year with the rest of the NSeries. There was a rumor that the phone would launch on Cingular, but we haven't heard anything about that since.Features of the Nokia N90 include:-2 megapixel camera with autofocus and Carl Zeiss optic-High-res 352 × 416 pixel main display-Bluetooth and USB 2.0-RS-MMC card slot-Symbian OSNokia N90 will be available in November at select Ritz Camera stores and online at ritzcamera.com for an estimated retail price of $399 with activation. It will also be in CompUSA starting in December and in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog.